New Years Greenollutions

I was watching an episode of Thirty Rock the other day. Tina Fey's character had just purchased a pair of jeans from this high class hipster store, promoting fair trade and green-o-nomics. Her punch line about said pants, was that they would "make up for all the times I took a long hot shower because I was bored!" (As it turned out, the store was owned by Haliburton, and the 'hand made in usa' on the label meant that the jeans had been made by a community of people called the hands, in country who's name was pronounced 'oosa.')

This hits the funny bone of most people, I think, because most of us live a day to day give and take of conservationism. After all, we can't all live textbook minimalist lives, so we balance our green consciences sort of like our checkbooks. We ride our bike to work one day, to make up for leaving the lights on the night before, or we make sure we use reusable grocery bags, because we just can't go without our daily coffee in that hypnotically appealing and wasteful to-go cup. It's these little hypocrisies that make us human. (I'm currently eating a vegan sandwich out of a disposable plastic container. )

We are creatures of habit. I'm sure we all have a few good habits and a few destructive ones. With that in mind, I thought I would offer up on ongoing discussion to you bloggers out there.

Name three good green habits you have, and three you might be afraid to confess to the hippie nearest you. In the spirit of approaching New Year's Resolutions, perhaps we can exchange some ideas, and inspire each other to try, just a little bit more, to keep the world around longer. I'll kick it off, and expose my dirty laundry. (Which I am about to run through a water hogging washing machine, and energy sucking dryer.)


The Wicked:

1. Water Bottle Addicted- I have a problem, in plastic form.
   
2. Hot Showers- long ones. Can't get enough, sometimes twice a day.
3. Paper Towel Insanity- Haven't made that leap of buying cloth napkins and cleaning rags. It's silly, but I can't' make a decision on ones I like.
   

The Win:

1. Reusin': Taking old butter, peanut butter, Tahinni, and any other sturdy disposable plastic or glass container, and making in to my new Tupperware. It may be cheap, but it's also pretty good for the environment.
   
2. Buying locally grown, organic produce: Easy on the pocket book, fun, and environmentally friendly. You avoid putting more pesticides in the air, and create less of a need for large, polluting trucks to drive 300 miles to bring you a head of broccoli, if you walk down to your local farmer's market or co-op.
   
3. CAR-bon: Carpooling, biking, walking, and public transportation. It's good for you, your community, and the earth. (It's okay if the real reason for it, is that cars are really FREAKING expensive. No one has to know that. )
   

So, there's a starter. Hopefully, this topic inspires you (ehem) thousands of readers of ours out there to see the green light. Or maybe just pick one bad habit to get rid of. Who knows. I should mention that you can't say 'I recycle' as one of your green good deeds. We've all been recycling since the eighties. It's old news, guys.

If you find you come up short on your good deed list, come in to Bambu Batu for some green living ideas. We have everything from compost pales, to reusable sporks, to help you get to that next step. We can do it. Together. Oh, we have reusable water bottles on the way? Check.

McReally?

Okay. We all know enough about nutrition now to know that McDonald's is on the bad guys' team, right? Morgan Spurlock, Eric Schlosser, and Micheal Pollan have made that clear enough, right? We don't want McDonald's in our kids' faces twenty-four-seven, right? We wouldn't have them teaching our kids about nutriti....what?

Yup. Not a joke. Not fiction. Reality. McReality. McDonald's is hosting nutrition workshops for elementary school kids. That's like having a convicted predator teach a class on self-defense for women.

It would be one thing if this was just some cheap ploy to improve their image in the nutrition community. No matter who it is dispensing the sermon, it can't be a bad thing to have kids learn about the merits of vegetables. After all, this is what McDonald's representatives claim to be the point of their seminars.

But little 11-year-old Shannon Mulligans claims to have "learned that McDonald's can be very healthy for you if you make the right choices. I usually have lots of cheese, but I had less cheese and more lettuce, and I had chicken instead of hamburger because it has fewer calories," according to a local paper.

Yup. The merits of vegetables.

The "learning" doesn't take place at schools either. It takes place at a McDonald's location: in Stratford, CT, where over 25% of high school students are overweight or obese. Interesting. Hmmm, divide that number, by the number of calories in an Angus Deluxe (750) and add what percentage of sodium and fat is recommended for an adult's daily maximum intake (about two Big Macs) and it equals... oh yeah, one reason kids shouldn't be taking nutritional guidance from the guru of gluttony.

Well, I guess this is just one more notch in the belt of big companies fighting to keep our kids fat. We already have soda companies funding school text books and lockers, in exchange for monopolies in vending machines, and dairy lobbyists making sure that kids drink milk with their lunch. What next? Are corn lobbyists going to dress up like stalks of corn, and hand out pamphlets about the benefits of HFCS (sorry, corn sugar?)

Think I'm kidding? Just consider Coca-Cola's virtual monopoly on Cal Poly campus. As of last year they gained exclusive rights to sell soft drinks (Coca-Cola, Red Bull, etc.) everywhere but the campus food court. That meant elbowing out Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and even organic, fair-trade and locally developed Guayaki. Of course, you probably remember how dutifully the Cal Poly president bowed down to corporate influence when Michael Pollan came to speak last year.

Thanks to change.org for the information about this. Want to send your kids to school with a sustainable way of eating lunch? Come in and get some to-go ware and a handy bamboo spork!

Song of the day

Choose organic. And save money.

I was at the grocery store the other day, with my better half. We were trying to pinch some pennies. We were in the produce department when the following happened. I swear, I'm not making this up. I went to grab a bundle of spinach, and no joke, out of my significant other's mouth, came "Oh, that's organic, that's too expensive."

Now, he was right. That was just more money than we had to spend on spinach. I had to think about that statement though. There's a reason income is the closest linked factor to obesity and health.

Then again, I know plenty of people, who will contest the merits of buying organic based on the price tag, only to drive to the nearest gas station after, and fill up their suburban or unnecessarily large truck with gas, and spend fifteen or so dollars buying candy and sodas at the convenience store.

What can we do to save money, the earth, and our bodies all in one? Organicitsworthit.org has the answers. I decided to bring them to you.

• More Is less: This may be obvious, but it's good to have a reminder. Many products come at a better price when bought in large quantities, so buy in bulk when it makes sense.
  
  
• Tis The Season: It takes a lot less effort to get something to the consumer that is in bloom NOW, so buy things that are in season.
  
  
• Grandmama Tried: While it may be irritating to get stuck in line behind a little old lady wielding paper and scissors, remember; she didn't make it to a hundred and four spending all of her dough. Clip those coupons to save the planet without going bankrupt.
  
  
• Hometown Goodness: Farmer's Markets are a fun way to support your local farmers, eat organic, and save money
  
  
• Good Ol' Home Cookin': It's not only better for you, but it saves money. It always has, and it always will. Cooking organic vegetables at home is no exception to the rule.
  
  
• Choose Your Battles: If you have to narrow it down, chose to buy organic versions of the products that you go for the most often, thereby reducing your exposure to harmful chemicals, and lowering your impact on the environment. Hooray for moderation!
  
  
• The Ace of Clubs: Joining a buyer's club is rapidly becoming an effective way to save money on produce.
  
  

Have more questions? Come in and see us at Bambu Batu. We have a great Shirt you can sport, broadcasting to the world the pride you have for supporting your local farmers! Think green and eat greens (that were organically grown, of course!)

Song of the Day: Amish Paradise- Weird Al Yankovic (He's a local!!)

Indian Summer? I Say African Summer.

So it's hot. It's really hot. As I type this, I can think of little else. My original intention for today's blog was to educate you all on a very important bill coming up on the ballot too soon for comfort. But, as it stands, I can't think over the sound of my own sweat dripping in my ears. So, I started looking up ways to keep cool without using an air conditioner (saving the environment and all).

While a few of them were sort of no-brainers, such as drinking cold drinks, a couple of them were pointers I'd never heard before, so I thought I'd pass them on to you in the midst of this Indian Summer.

• Wet your wrists and other pulse points with cold water. This will instantly cool you down and can lower your body temperature up to 3 degrees F for up to an hour.
  
• Turn off hot sources of electricity (such as the computer I'm typing this on, for example). Stoves, lights, anything that puts off heat.
• Eat less, especially meat. You may be inclined to do this anyway, as people tend to lose their appetites in ONE HUNDRED AND THREE DEGREE WEATHER. Protein rich foods require a greater metabolic temperature to digest, and therefore will keep you a bit warmer.
  
• Mint is a natural cooling agent. Mint lotions, mint leaf in your five o'clock cocktail, mint anything will keep feeling cool.
  
• Fill a glass to the brim with ice and breathe into it. The air that blows back in your face will be like an arctic breeze.... just don't let other people catch you, it looks kind of silly. I had to explain to a customer who walked in today.
  
• "Heeee better lay low!" Wise advice, Snoop. Heat rises, so get down to the ground kids.
  

Alright. Six ways to avoid the heat, or at least pretend it isn't there, without turning on that power sucker. Try and keep cool and remember to wear your all-natural sunscreen, available here at Bambu Batu. Friendly Tips provided by GreenTerraFirma.com

Song of the day: Buster Poindexter's "Hot Hot Hot"

Bonus Video: Christine O'Donnell's look on science.

Bamboo: The Viable Alternative

(The following story was written by me and recently appeared in a number of local publications.)

Suddenly it seems like everybody’s talking about sustainability and renewable resources. And well they should. After 30 years of hot air about global warming and peak oil, the environment is finally talking a lead role in the American political drama. Solar energy is radiating across California and the nation, organic produce is spreading like pollen in the spring, and alternatives to disappearing hardwood and pesticide-rich cotton are drawing more interest than ever.

One remarkable resource that’s recently come out of the woodwork and into the spotlight is bamboo. A paragon of sustainability, bamboo is finding its way into construction, flooring, clothing, towels and linens. And unlike so many progressive alternatives, bamboo is absolutely affordable. It doesn’t require another 20 years of research or legislation, and it doesn’t demand a major initial investment to be recouped a decade from now. Bamboo is economically viable today.

Words like renewable and sustainable get thrown around a lot, and they’re likely to cause some misunderstanding. Even petroleum is a renewable resource; it just might take a few hundred thousand years to replenish itself. Redwood trees renew themselves much faster, in just a few centuries. As long as we don’t harvest them any faster than they grow, they could be considered sustainable. Further up on the scale, we have annual crops like hemp, which can grow up to 12 feet in a single season, with minimal crop rotation and little or no chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Easily maintained and renewed each year: that’s sustainable.

Then there’s bamboo. A division of the grass family, with as many as 2000 varieties, bamboo flourishes in virtually every climate. It is a notoriously vigorous grower; some varieties grow as much as 3 feet a day in the growing season — although a few inches a day is more typical. Bamboo reaches maturity within five years, and, as a grass, requires no replanting. Anyone who’s ever tried removing unwanted bamboo knows this characteristic all too well. When bamboo is cut down, it just comes right back, and stronger. If there’s a more readily renewable resource out there, I’d like to know about it.

The vast majority of commercial bamboo comes from China, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia. Indeed, they’ve been using the plant in that part of the world for both food and shelter for millennia. (They’ve even identified bamboo as having magical and mythical properties.) Countless varieties also thrive throughout Africa and the Americas, even in temperate and hardy climates.

Bamboo’s natural vigor makes it sustainable, plentiful, and inexpensive. And its physical strength and diversity translate directly into its versatility as a natural resource. In addition to all of its traditional uses for things like chopsticks and furniture, bamboo today is pressed and laminated as a superior lumber alternative. Stronger even than oak or maple, bamboo has become the first choice in flooring. And in the past couple years, its price has come to rival that of traditional hardwood. This pressed bamboo is also becoming wildly popular for cutting boards and kitchenware because of the way it resists scratching and repels moisture.

Bamboo fiber clothing and fabrics, however, may hold the plant’s greatest promise. Until you’ve seen it yourself, the touch of bamboo is hard to imagine, and difficult to believe. Beat into a pulp and spun into thread, bamboo fiber yields an amazingly soft, anti-bacterial and anti-microbial material. Remarkably soft and absorbent bamboo towels are simply exquisite. And, unlike conventional cotton, bamboo grows prolifically without fertilizers, pesticides or defoliants.

In the quest for a global panacea, bamboo might not necessarily save the planet; but in terms of renewability and sustainability, it’s certainly one of the most promising natural resources we have. And not just promising — bamboo is available today, and affordable. No longer must one pay a premium to support a cause or to make an environmental statement. At last, you can do what’s right for the earth, what’s right for yourself, and what’s right for your budget.